How others describe "spiritual direction"

Following is a sampling of how others describe the ministry of "spiritual direction":

"Spiritual direction is a time honored term for a conversation, ordinarily between two persons, in which one person consults another, more spiritually experienced person about the ways in which God may be touching his or her life, directly or indirectly. In our postmodern age, many people dislike the term 'spiritual direction' because it sounds like one person giving directions, or orders, to another. They prefer 'spiritual companionship,' 'tending the holy,' or some other nomenclature. What we call it doesn't make any real difference. The reality remains conversations about life in the light of faith."

• Marian Cowan, CSJ

"Many people would agree that spiritual direction means a companionship with another person or group through which the Holy One shines with wisdom, encouragement, and discernment."

• Gerald May, MD

"Spiritual direction is, in reality, nothing more than a way of leading us to see and obey the real Director -- the Holy Spirit hidden in the depths of our soul."

• Thomas Merton, Trappist Monk

"We define Christian spiritual direction as [the offer of presence] given by one Christian to another which enables that person to pay attention to God's personal communication to him or her, to respond to this personally communicating God, to grow in intimacy with this God, and to live out the consequences of the relationship."

• William A. Barry, SJ and William J. Connolly, SJ, Center for Religious Development

"Spiritual direction can mean different things to different people. Some people understand it to be the art of listening carried out in the context of a trusting relationship. It is when one person is trained to be a competent guide who then 'companions' another person, listening to that person's life story with an ear for the movement of the Holy, of the Divine."

• Rev. Jeffrey S. Gaines

"The marks of a spiritual director are love, kindliness, and a real compassion. The language used is one of healing and growth rather than that of the law court with its judgment, condemnation, and punishment….its practitioners are counsellors, confessors, and physicians of the soul, not judges. There is warmth and a lightness of touch."

• Canon Peter W. Ball

"The whole purpose of spiritual direction is to penetrate beneath the surface of a persons life, to get behind the façade of conventional gestures and attitudes which one presents to the world, and to bring out one's inner spiritual freedom, one's inmost truth, which is what [Christians] call the likeness of Christ in one's soul. This is an entirely supernatural (spiritual) thing, for the work of rescuing the inner person from automatism belongs first of all to the Holy Spirit."

• Fr. Thomas Merton, Trappist Monk

"The greatest teacher is silence. To come out of interior silence and to practice its radiance, its love, its concern for others, its submission to God's will, its trust in God even in the tragic situations is the fruit of living from your inmost center, from the contemplative space within. The signs of coming from this space are a peace that is rarely upset by events, other people, and our reactions to them, and a calm that is a stabilizing force in whatever environment you may be in. God gives us everything we need to be happy in the present moment, no matter what the evidence to the contrary may be. A good spiritual director helps us to sustain that trust."

• Fr. Thomas Keating, Trappist Monk